Priority boarding on QF domestic - what is the story?

[Kendall Roy]

Another argument from a SG point of view. Priority security, but back of the queue for boarding? Just doesn't feel right!

 

[trippin_the_rift]

Another argument from a SG point of view. Priority security, but back of the queue for boarding? Just doesn't feel right!

Nothing new right?

 

[Kendall Roy]

Nothing new right?

Well it is QF we're talking about! These things have a habit of chopping and changing almost on a daily basis!

 

[ozbeachbabe]

I have 3 more hours until G&T time - so a rant was a perfect way to kill 10 mins

Can't wait to read your posts in 3 hours time then!

Qantas trials Platinum frequent flyer priority domestic boarding - Flights | hotels | frequent flyer | business class - Australian Business Traveller

Currently at Gate 8
Gate 4 will be next

The problem that I see with those signs is the font saying 'Platinum/Business' is so tiny the punters won't be able to differentiate priority boarding from economy & will just think it's just 2 queues as per the usual bunfight, yet they have huge font saying 'Boarding' which is really stating the obvious. It should be the other way around!

"AJ - if you really want to save QF's bottom line... Forget nickel and diming the punters, forget screwing over FF's from their NPPPs, simply sack the pathetic excuses for humans who pose as "consultants" or those useless crony junior exec sycophants that you have surrounded yourself with (AKA - whoever came up with this moronic idea that Priority Boarding needs trialling..??..?? - I mean WTF!!!). As they say when talking about public servants - CUT THE FAT!

Disclaimer: Sorry if I came across as harsh - but I have a religious aversion to bureaucracy and incompetence - two things that QF seems to have an abundance of

Sounds like you're saying they couldn't organise a root in a coughhouse? :shock: :shock:

 

[moa999]

Another AusBT story 'sourced' from AFF. They did take their own photos
Qantas trials Platinum frequent flyer priority domestic boarding - Flights | hotels | frequent flyer | business class - Australian Business Traveller

I must say however, whilst I do like the two big signs, which Qantas genius decided to make them both the same colour - ie bright red

 

[dfcatch]

Can't wait to read your posts in 3 hours time then!


....


Sounds like you're saying they couldn't organise a root in a coughhouse? :shock: :shock:

Oh no - they could if they wanted to - they just have to "want" to.....

Like I said - the only plausible explanation for the whole farce is that some high-ranking individual is blocking it.....

The G&T has worked wonders, I'm all relaxed and laughing at the debacle that is QF whilst just about to check my Velocity account to see if my status has updated

Then get ready for an early start at work ending with a redeye Deathstar flight to AKL tomorrow night......Now where's my rollaboard gone

 

[N860CR]

I purchased some of those very banners for my reception. $185 each (from memory). I'm sure the big Q could probably get them a bit cheaper than my one off efforts... I'd estimate about $20-30k to fit out every "CityFlyer" airport. Drop in the ocean for a company that size. AJ's kilt budget would be more than that

 

[TonyHancock]

I purchased some of those very banners for my reception. $185 each (from memory). I'm sure the big Q could probably get them a bit cheaper than my one off efforts... I'd estimate about $20-30k to fit out every "CityFlyer" airport. Drop in the ocean for a company that size. AJ's kilt budget would be more than that

Which does make me wonder how much QF spent on the meaningless ad in the Sunday newspapers at the weekend. If a company has nothing to say it is probably best to say nothing.

 

[ComeFlyWithMe]

Which does make me wonder how much QF spent on the meaningless ad in the Sunday newspapers at the weekend. If a company has nothing to say it is probably best to say nothing.

Agreed - perhaps the broadsheets should have read:

There's a new spirit (in the QP bar... but we've enhanced [read: removed] a number of the other favourites to balance it out)

Qantas - we stopped listening to our customers long ago...

 

[medhead]

What is it about teachers & how they have to be in control 24/7? Did she frogmarch you to the principal's office?

That teacher was ok. Just mentioned that I knew them to make it clear it wasn't some stranger talking to kids at the supermarket. But agreed some teachers are hopeless, with both my parents being teachers I've been privy to a few interesting conversations.

 

[drron]

Sounds like you're saying they couldn't organise a root in a coughhouse? :shock: :shock:

Yes you need an Union credit card for that and AJ doesn't like unions.

 

[dfcatch]

Yes you need an Union credit card for that and AJ doesn't like unions.

"No Ticket - No Start"

 

[Oneworldplus2]

"No Ticket - No Start"

I heard this from one of the Union Reps the other week and couldn't believe it....

"Wet Steel, No deal" - i.e., no work in the rain....

 

[ozbeachbabe]

Yes you need an Union credit card for that and AJ doesn't like unions.

Hmmmm, neither does the Chairman. Gee a cynical person might say that's why he got the job in the first place & why the board allowed 36 years worth of experience to walk out the door.

Now the chickens are coming home to roost in the DJ camp because DJ are doing what customers want.

 

[Archphoto]

Now how are you supposed to deal with that?

The same thing applies to dealing with priority boarding.

In saying that, it seems VA can do it fine, and on international flights there doesn't seem too much hoo-ha. Either that or it doesn't really make the papers as much as a naive celebrity likening a go-around to a "we're all gonna die" situation. Although there have been a couple of cases raised in the VA forums where all the kettles lined up for priority boarding and no one did anything about it (of course, such situations are still rare).

I still believe that some of us, until true priority boarding is introduced, should just shove in to the front of the line, waving your black card all the way.

I've seen similar and the "offender" has been told to join the regular queue as this is "12 Items or Less" - said whilst pointing directly at the sign.
And had the same occur to me when priority boarding with J* Aisa - anyone holding an incorrect ticket was asked politely to wait until their boarding was called, and *not* allowed to board any time before. (Was told that myself once when I tired to board with my colleague who was WP at the time and I was Silver - she relented when I indicated I was travelling with them.)

 

[drewbles]

AJ's kilt budget would be more than that

Irish wear kilts too? :shock:

 

[rsellens]

Not worried about it anymore now that my Virgin status match has been confirmed. They will be getting virtually all my domestic business from now on in.

 

[straitman]

Irish wear kilts too? :shock:

Yes they do.

 

[Oneworldplus2]

Something interesting;


Particle Physicist discovers fastest way for airline to board passengers

As a scientist at Fermilab, Dr. Jason Steffen normally thinks about smashing particles together at great speeds. Great energy and speed are not usually associated with the airline boarding process, so it might seem odd that an insight into making how we get on planes would occur to someone who works next to a 3.9 mile particle accelerator. But occur it did, and now the first real-world test of his theory shows that it cuts boarding time in half.

In his method, first, alternate rows on one side of the plane board, but just the window seats. Then the other side boards, in alternate rows with one row between each passenger. Again, window seats only. Then back to the other side, with the middle seats this time. And so on. The result is a beautiful choreography as rows of passengers simultaneously stow their luggage and take their seats in tandem. The video below makes how the system works clear.

The reason why it works is because it makes optimum use of the aisles, allowing each passenger to freely flow from the center aisle, to luggage stow, to their seat. There's maximum elbow room, and minimum crotch and butt scraping.

Steffen figured out this system after running several simulations with a Monte Carlo optimization algorithm, which Wikipedia informs me is, "especially useful for simulating systems with many coupled degrees of freedom, such as fluids, disordered materials, strongly coupled solids..." Sounds like an accurate description of my last flight to Phoenix.

So how long before we see airlines start to use this? We'll see. Airlines didn't care at all when Steffen first published his theory back in 2008, even though that it showed that the current way of boarding was pretty much the slowest possible way you could do it. But now that there's real-world data to back it up, airlines, which are in dire need of anything to help them save time, might just let this idea take off.

 

[Stephen65]

And here was I thinking that his theory would be to put the passengers into a particle accelerator, render them down to their component atoms and pour the resulting atomic sludge into the seats.